"Hey friends, thanks for caring to maintain this software for so long without support and using your free time. I am developer myself so I know how it goes. However, I am not a Ruby developer and therefore wonder how I can help this effort.
I have been thinking about sustainability here. Many coops are using this software but which of them is supporting the foodsoft project? You know that a lot of volunteer hours can go into this project and without some financial support this becomes unsustainable.
So, what about a https://liberapay.com / https://opencollective.com collective account for those that manage the software. Ideally each coop that uses foodsoft would commit to contribute some amount on a regular basis. This allows to at least invoice some time spent against the project so as to get paid a little.
There would be some work to get the coops involved to start contirbuting but I guess it would work out. I am happy to commit to coordinating this if there is agreement on the direction.
Our foodcoop may financially support foodsoft, given we can get it working properly. I’ll talk about it at our next meeting.
I’ve also been thinking about contributing to the project, but my skills and those of other members of our foodcoop don’t cover development. We could maintain and improve the french documentation, as well as helping translation.
Sadly, I’m on my own to administer the foodcoop’s server and already spent dozens of hours trying to install it with very poor success (still no emails at that time), wich prevents me from doing further contribution.
I guess this required technicity already made a lot of people go away and use other foodcoop software, as we would have done if we weren’t aware of the usefulness of foodsoft. The development of the YunoHost instance looks like a good answer to that issue.
I’m actively working on a complete step by step guide to install foodsoft, adapted to docker beginners, like I am. It is nearly done for basic docker installation process, just missing a proper emails configuration. Some help about it would be greatly appreciated btw.
I think thats a big part of the “soft skills” that the ones that cannot contribute directly to the code (like us) can deal with. We can write documentation. You’re already doing it! We could be working together on this in collaboration with the developers if we were organised together.
Sadly, I’m on my own to administer the foodcoop’s server … The development of the YunoHost instance looks like a good answer to that issue.
Same. I am the one who packaged Foodsoft on YunoHost but unfortunately, I starting to realise that it is very hard to configure and maintain. I also have the feeling that the Docker solution is “the one” that should be focused on since a lot of the other coops use it. So, I will probably deprecate the YunoHost packaging soon.
I’m actively working on a complete step by step guide to install foodsoft, adapted to docker beginners, like I am. It is nearly done for basic docker installation process, just missing a proper emails configuration. Some help about it would be greatly appreciated btw.
TBH, I am also thinking of moving to the Docker setup in order to resolve the quite difficult configuration issues with my own setup. I see that GitHub - foodcoops/foodcoops.net: foodcoops.net deployment configuration is probably a good base to work from but I have not got so far as to try it yet.
Again, I think this ties into project sustainability topic as a whole.
Ok, I am pleased to see that you’re also willing to improve the documentation and install process. Let’s collaborate.
We can write documentation. You’re already doing it! We could be working together on this in collaboration with the >developers if we were organised together.
Let’s at least get in touch together, I bet this could greatly improve the install process documentation. My current documentation effort already helps going through the process for installing and running a decent production system. If we could at least make emails work, (maybe just a app_config.yml concern), our coop could then help funding, and further collaboration with the dev team could be considered (translations improvements and adding, UI design, alternative hosting services, sharedlists improvements, communication, etc.)
Hey, super late one but just to say that I finally managed to package Foodsoft for Docker Swarm over in https://git.autonomic.zone/coop-cloud/foodsoft. I also finally understand how to wire up the mail configuration and have working incoming and outgoing mail. I still didn’t get time to write that documentation but I don’t even know where to put it to be honest. Hit me up if you want a hand on setting things up if you haven’t got there yet.